BP's Russian partners hurled insults at the British company yesterday, accusing it of arrogance and mismanagement of the TNK-BP joint venture.

They also likened Peter Sutherland, BP's chairman, to Josef Goebbels, the Nazi propaganda chief.

Mikhail Fridman's outburst, published in a Russian newspaper, was followed yesterday by further accusations and threats that the Russian shareholders would seek the removal of Robert Dudley, the BP-nominated chief executive of the venture.

It also emerged yesterday that Mr Fridman and his co-investors Len Blavatnik and Viktor Vekselberg had asked BP to grant them an option to exchange their stake in TNK-BP for shares in BP. ... Read full article